Volleyball, Birthdays and Pumpkins

We have been going a mile a minute around here lately...

 Volleyball has consumed our evenings...

 It has even consumed our Saturdays from 7am until 6pm.

Lindsay does NOT enjoy going to tournaments.  They last too long.  However, last weekend's tournament was out in the country!

 Between games we shared our carrots and apples with the sweet horses.  It was especially exciting when they "did their business" right there in front of us.  I bet Lindsay laughed for 10 minutes over it!

 The swings were a great way to stretch our legs during the long day too.

 I saved the Dora the Explorer episode on the iPad for the championship game.  Lindsay usually does not wear headphones (I think because her vision is impaired, they may make her feel a bit claustrophobic?) but I found some that are not tight and they worked great.  She watched Dora twice while I watched Anna's game in peace.  It was great!

 The very long day was worth it because the Redding Christian Lions ended up undefeated, and were First Place in the tournament.  They also ended up First in their league.

 This picture makes me so happy.  Praying together as a team after the games...I L.O.V.E  our school!

 We have been busy doing chores around the house.  OH THE JOY of children who are old enough to empty the dish washer! Ahhhhh..... Even Lindsay gets in on the action!  She is in charge of the silverware (and she LOVES doing it!!) Anna, notsomuch.

 Lindsay is tolerating school this year.  She is always ready to be home and asks "where's Daddy?" each day when she gets to the door after getting off the bus (she wants me to wait at the door so she can walk up "all by herself")

 She plants herself on her new fuzzy pillow that her Texas cousins sent for her birthday.

Speaking of her birthday, we got a fun surprise! Uncle Barry was in San Fransisco on business so he drove up to SHOCK Grandma (and he DID!)  We happened to be going to have pizza for Lindsay's birthday with Brad, the boys, Grandma and Papa (Daddy had a group at camp and Beckie was out of town) so we were thrilled when Barry walked in!

Lindsay told me all week that she wanted to go to the pumpkin patch, so Sunday after church we finally went.

We had a fun afternoon looking at all the pumpkins and finding just the right ones!

They had a large variety of different kinds of pumpkins.

The girls went on a train ride around the ranch (we only had enough $ for two tickets after paying for the pumpkins and getting kettle corn and lemonade! haha)

Chloe was there working with the animals (she is in 4H) so she took Lindsay into the petting zoo to see all the animals.

Our pumpkin plunder came in handy as the table decorations for Grandma's birthday dinner a couple days later.

I love all the colors of FALL...so rich and bountiful!

We had a fun evening celebrating Grandma and eating yummy food.

Just when things seem to be settling down a little....BASKETBALL season has arrived!